Posted on 03/03/2018 4:32:57 PM PST by walford
After the two-term presidency of Barack Obama - the first Black man to hold that office - was the election of Donald Trump a surprise? To many people, it was. The history of race in America is often told as a linear story of progress, beginning with the emancipation of slaves during the Civil War, continuing with the expansion of civil rights in the twentieth century, and culminating with the election (and re-election) of Obama. For people who believe in this story of consistent racial progress, Trump’s successful campaign, fueled as it was by white nationalist supporters, was very surprising.
However, for students of U.S. history, Trump’s presidency is not an outlier, but rather emblematic of a deeply rooted tradition of American politics. Some observers have called this brand of American politics “whitelash” the staunch white resistance to, and even revenge against, racial equity. In this course, students will explore the history of white resistance to racial equity in the U.S., from the end of the Civil War to the hotly contested debates over Civil War monuments in our contemporary moment. As we study the struggle for Black freedom in this country in the long twentieth-century and into the present day, we will encounter and discuss the logics and tactics of white opposition.
We will begin by focusing on four foundational developments in race relations in the U.S. that generated enduring political legacies: 1) the promise of Reconstruction after the Civil War; 2) the subsequent establishment of Jim Crow regimes in the South and the North; 3) the surge of Civil Rights activism after World War II; 4) and the rise of mass incarceration in the 1970s. Then, we will explore white “massive resistance” to Black equity in thematic topics, including education, housing, voting, and the workplace. We will also study the “Southernization” of U.S. culture in the twentieth-century. Students will have the opportunity to engage with important American thinkers, including W.E.B. DuBois; crucial texts including Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow; cutting-edge scholars of race in the U.S. including Ibram X. Kendi; as well as primary source documents, oral histories, and testimonials.
Students in this course will gain a toolkit of critical methods of inquiry and communication that is readily transferable to their everyday lives and future collegiate careers. We will develop our historical habits of mind: considering context; identifying causality; testing comparisons; and most importantly, cultivating a sense of curiosity. Students will practice these habits in three ways: first, we will draw on a rich trove of primary sources to experience the texture and complexity of historical materials. Second, we weigh the interpretations of historical actors and scholars. And third, students will learn to harness evidence and situate their own claims within ongoing intellectual debates.
Students can expect a highly interactive and rigorous classroom. In addition to daily critical reflections and weekly quizzes, students should be prepared to participate in role-playing historical debates, group work, and peer-review exercises. Each class, one student will lead the discussion of the readings. For a final project, students will deliver a multimedia presentation on a topic of their own choosing related to the course materials. For at least one class, we will visit Brown University’s John Hay Library and conduct archival research in the library’s extensive Hall-Hoag collection of extremist print material. After we have learned the process and practice of archival research, students are encouraged to continue this historical method to prepare their in-class presentation.
By the close of the course, students will be fluent in the major terms, concepts, and debates in the U.S. history of race relations. Students will also be familiar with historical methods of research and inquiry which will prepare them for college-level courses in history, and courses in the humanities and social sciences more broadly. Finally, the skills students build in this course will equip them to be critical thinkers in their everyday lives.
Prerequisites: This course assumes that students have a basic familiarity with major turning points in U.S. history since the Civil War (e.g., Reconstruction, the Civil Rights Movement). Students who have taken one high school-level U.S. history course will be best prepared for this course. Students should also be aware that the material in this course may be politically or emotionally unsettling. Students are asked to bring a spirit of generous curiosity, good faith, and mutual respect in order to co-create an inclusive space of shared inquiry.
...and, if I may add, a mulatto president who sought to enslave the black man just as his family members are doing in north Africa.
“Students should also be aware that the material in this course may be politically or emotionally unsettling.”
*****
In other words kiddies, Get ready for more liberal bullsh*t.
What did the little darlings have to say about the vote of the South African Parliament to confiscate the land of all whites in that country?
When the white South Africans start shooting back over that, will they call it “whitelash”?
Who writes this drivel?
There is a big difference between racial equality, as in the title, and what is meant by racial equity, as in the statement of the course.
Kinda like the difference between justice and social justice.
“Resistance to Racial Equality”
Black supremacist/separatists/nationalists like those in the Nation of Islam have resisted racial equality for almost a century.
Sounds like that is what this course is pushing too. Race hatred.
To show you the absolute idiocy of these morons, Obama first black president was only concerned with “his” what’s in it for me agenda. He had the house, the senate and the presidency and he sowed racial divide and excuses while he filled his pockets. Yet no one sez a bad word about him and his band of criminals who did the same and did nothing for his so called people, with out a doubt the worst
Summary - Why don’t we have a black/brown radical president from now on, what’s wrong with this racist country?!
Most higher education is a huge Democrat fraud.
Why “since the Civil War . . .”?
To begin to understand American history one must know the names of the early slave states: New York, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Delaware, and Maryland.
Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia were also slave states.
Of the 13 original states, 13 of them voted to enshrine slavery into the U.S. constitution. It is often said with pride that nine of these states later took up arms to violently overthrow the U.S. constitution's slavery provisions, i.e. “fought to free the slaves.”
Oh! Finally, an exposé of the democrat party! Yippee!
Then I read the article,,,
Whazzamatta? You never heard of Drivel Rights?
The US is the ONLY majority white nation to ever elect a black president.
Anyone wanna give odds whether the perfessor tells his class that the end of Reconstruction and opening the door to Jim Crow was the price the Democrats demanded to end the stalemate of the hung 1876 election and allow Hayes to take office?
The Civil War was thus fought for nothing and restarted by the scum of Obama.
Something must have been wrong with the keyboard used by the bimbo who wrote this screed, since the word “Black” is routinely capitalized while the shift key did not permit the capitalization of the word “white”.
I wonder what the Congressional Caucasian Caucus has to say about that?
“students should be prepared to participate in role-playing historical debates...”
Maoist re-education camps. Will the students be required to pledge fealty to communist mass murderers?
In my younger days, we confronted college commies like this, and they are the biggest bunch of sniveling wimps you’ll ever see.
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